Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp - Virtual Tour 360°

The Bergen-Belsen (or commonly Belsen) concentration camp was a Nazi concentration camp located in Lower Saxony, southeast of the town of Bergen, near Celle.

Used until 1943 solely as a camp for prisoners of war, in the following years Jews, common criminals, political prisoners, gypsies and homosexuals were also interned there.

The Russian prisoners were isolated in a special section of the camp. The Bergen-Belsen camp was opened in 1940 as a prisoner of war camp under the name Stalag 311 or Stalag XI-C and remained so exclusively until 1943.

At first, some 600 French and Belgian POWs were held there, but as of July 1941 there were already more than 20,000 Soviet POWs.

Almost none of these Russian prisoners, who were camped out in the harshest conditions, survived. When the adjoining concentration camp was opened in April 1943, the remaining Russian prisoners were eliminated or deported, while the French and Belgians were transferred to Fallingbostel. Only a small hospital for new prisoners of war remained.

Map: Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp - Virtual Tour 360°